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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 7, 4/11/2011—Printer-Friendly Version


Table of Contents:Why We Make So Much of the Resurrection - - - - - 1Reason, Emotion, and the 21st Century Church - - - - -3Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Easter - - - - - - - - 4Exegetically Speaking - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6Following God - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -10Words to Stand You on Your Feet - - - - - - - - 10Jewels from Past Giants - - - - - - - - - - - - 12

Marks of the Master- - - - - - - - - - - - - 16Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel- - - - - - 17Book Reviews- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 17News Update - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18Sermon Helps - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19Puzzles and ‘Toons- - - - - - - - - - - - - -21

_____________________________________________________________________________Why We Make So Much of the Resurrection of ChristBy Joe McKeever

“God has resurrected this Jesus. We are all witnesses of this. Therefore, since He has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, He has poured out what you both see and hear…. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:32-33, 36).

“The Jesus Memorial Society will come to order!“The first order of business will be a report from

the treasurer on our last bake-and-rummage sale to raise money for the historical marker. As you know, we’re placing a commemorative sign at the Jerusalem gravesite of Jesus in order to remind all 300 of our members worldwide as to His final resting place.”

Without the resurrection of Jesus, that’s how it would be: a few sad history buffs honoring an outstanding figure from the past. The Church stands or falls on the resurrection. It all does.

From the first sermon preached by a disciple of Jesus—Acts chapter 2—the Lord’s resurrection has been the clincher. His crucifixion was the crux, to employ a little redundancy, and became the central focus of all Gospel preaching. But without the resurrection of our Lord, His followers would quickly have deteriorated into a Jesus Memorial Society and His life and ministry would be of interest only to cultural archaeologists today.

I once asked the disciples of a Middle Eastern guru what they did with Jesus’ resurrection. Their answer troubles me to this day, because it’s so characteristic of this modern age. Their guru was teaching that God has lived on earth in every generation. Some of His better known personae included Abraham, Moses, Mohammed, Krishna, Jesus, and—surprise, surprise—at the moment, the guru himself.

I said to the disciples, “All the religious leaders you mentioned died and lie in graves somewhere. But Jesus was raised from the dead. No grave contains His body. It seems

to me that would put Him a zillion miles above the other religious leaders, and that He does not deserve having His name mentioned in the same breath as theirs. What do you do with the resurrection of Jesus?”

The spokesman said, “Sir, we don’t believe anything from 2,000 years ago has any meaning for us today.”

I was stunned. The only response I could come up with at the moment was, “So, truth doesn’t mean anything to you.”

Have you ever thought of a better response days after you needed one? A better answer to that remark would have been: “The point of Jesus’ resurrection is that He is still alive.” And the implications of that—that Jesus is still alive and well—are enormous. Consider the overwhelming effect of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are four prominent ones; you’ll think of a dozen others, I’m sure.

I. The Resurrection of Jesus Reestablishes His IdentityWho was Jesus? Better yet, who is He? During the

years of His earthly ministry, Jesus left no question as to who He thought He was. Among the many titles He called Himself and allowed others to call Him, were the “I AMs” of John’s Gospel (John 8:58; 13:19; and 18:5, 8). No title could have been higher, no statement of identity stronger, than the name by which God chose to reveal Himself to Moses (Ex. 3:14).

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though He were dead, yet shall He live” (John 11:25). He said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” (John 10:9). He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6).

Everything about Who Jesus is stands or falls on whether He is still lying in some grave somewhere, by now nothing but dust, or alive and well and comfortably in place


on Heaven’s throne. For good reason, the disciple Thomas fell before the risen Savior and called Him a name that prior to the resurrection would have seemed blasphemous: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Make no mistake about it, friend. If Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead as He predicted again and again, then He is not who He claimed to be and it’s all over.

II. The Resurrection of Jesus Reinterprets His MinistryWhy was Jesus here? What was He doing on earth?

The disciples took a three-year course assembling their answers to that question. Most were continually revising their understandings based on new developments and insights. Nothing necessitated a reordering of their understanding of the Lord’s ministry, of course, like the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

Again and again throughout the Gospel, we read confessions from the Lord’s followers like this one: “As they were coming down from the mountain, (Jesus) ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept this word to themselves, discussing what ‘rising from the dead’ meant” (Mark 9:9-10).

And this: “Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day?’ And they remembered His words” (Luke 24:7-8). And later, to the same two men: “He said to them, ‘How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?’ Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:25-27).

Clearly, after Jesus’ resurrection, His disciples had a lot of thinking to do. This put an entirely new light on everything the Lord had said and done. It cleared up areas in which they been confused—the Lord’s death on that Roman cross above all others. It answered questions that had nagged at them over the three years. The resurrection filled spaces in their learning. Now, it all began to make sense. The Lord Jesus went to the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sins, He was buried, and on the third day, God raised Him to life. That clearly was the plan from the beginning; now it made sense to them.

The entire life and ministry of Jesus pointed to the cross and beyond. Far from the cross being an interruption of God’s plan and the empty tomb being a side note, this is what His ministry had pointed to since that first day John the Baptist had called out His prescient greeting: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

III. The Resurrection of Jesus Reinforces His ClaimsHe promised so much; can He be trusted? Not only

did Jesus make claims regarding His own identity that the resurrection substantiates, but He claimed to give gifts of eternal dimensions to those trusting in Him. Whether He can or not is determined by whether He is alive or dead. It’s that simple.

Take His claim that “Whoever believes in the Son of God has everlasting life” (John 3:15, 16, 36). If the Guarantor of this promise is no longer living, the promise is invalid. It’s no more complicated than that. If Jesus rose from the dead, He should have no trouble giving eternal life to anyone He chooses. As He said, “Because I live, you too shall live” (John 14:19).

On the very day in which He spoke, Jesus promised that the dying thief would “be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Since the Lord was in the process of dying Himself, the promise seemed as audacious as any ever made. Only one with nothing to lose—like the dying thief, like you and me—would grab for such a promise and hold onto it with all his might.

The resurrection of Jesus makes the fulfillment of all His promises to His people seem like child’s play. “Nothing to it.” No wonder Scripture assures us the promises of God are all “yes and amen” in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20).

The Apostle Paul, on trial for his life for preaching the resurrection, put it to his accusers in the starkest of logic: “Why is it considered incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). If God is God, then to raise anyone from the dead should not difficult for Him or hard for us to accept. As with everything in life, it all comes down to a matter of our faith in Jesus Christ, our faith in God. Either God is God and able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20), or we are hopelessly lost and on our own, adrift in this aimless universe without a beginning or ending. What we do with the resurrection of Jesus makes an eternity of difference.

IV. The Resurrection of Jesus Reverberates with Heaven’s Promises

What will happen to us? Jesus is “the firstfruits of those who sleep,” according to 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23. His emergence from the tomb thrills us, His followers, not only for what it says about Jesus, but for what it promises concerning our own destiny. Get a good look at the resurrected Jesus with His disciples. Look closely, because what you are seeing is a preview of coming attractions. This is how you will be (remember that 1 John 3:2 says, “We shall be like Him”).

1) We will have a real body. “A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have” (Luke 24:39).


2) We will have a recognizable body. “Why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I Myself” (Luke 24:39). Yes, it was the same Jesus. Those scars were still fresh, put there only a couple of days earlier by Roman soldiers. And yet, there was a difference. “They were prevented from recognizing Him” (Luke 24:16). I’m not sure what that means, but it makes me believe there was some kind of difference in the appearance of the pre and post-resurrection bodies in some way.

3) We will have an appetite for real food. “‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ So they gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate it in their presence” (Luke 24:41-42).

4) We will have a glorified body. In the account of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, we read: “The appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became dazzling white” (Luke 9:29). Referring to this moment, the Apostle Peter said, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16).

Some of us think of Heaven as less than real, something ethereal, as though you put out your hand to touch someone and it goes right through them. How silly

that is, as if this world were real and Heaven less so! If anything, Heaven is far more real, more solid, more wonderful, and of course, infinitely longer lasting, than anything earth has to offer.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ steadies our faith, anchors our hopes, settles our questions, and excites our passions. “Wow. Just think what God has in store for us! If earth is this good, how much more wonderful Heaven will be.”

This Sunday, when the Lord’s followers congregate for worship, it will not be to commemorate a figure of history, no matter how august His personage. What makes this assembly special is that among those present will be the Great Unseen One. Jesus Himself will be there, risen, glorified, and reigning.

What a Lord we worship!

Joe McKeever is a retired Southern Baptist pastor from New Orleans, Louisiana. He blogs regularly at

www.joemckeever.com.

_____________________________________________________________________________Reason, Emotion and the 21st Century ChurchBy Shea Oakley

In our postmodern era it has become fashionable for certain segments of the American church to denigrate reason as no longer being an important part of the authentic Christian life. Some have opined that evangelical Protestantism has too long been a captive of the Enlightenment’s idolatrous elevation of human rationality during the 17th and 18th centuries; the theory being that the Western church has been unwittingly co-opted by the basically secular worldview expressed in modernity.

In reaction to this, a greater emphasis on emotion is sometimes promoted as a vital corrective. One might say that Systematic Theology is out and The Sacred Romance is in. We are now being advised in certain quarters to think less about God’s order so that we can be free to feel more of His Presence. We find ourselves gauging what we consider to be reality by how we are feeling at any given moment. This attitude has always been a temptation for Christians, but it seems to hold more influence now than ever. We are asked to allow our very perception of who God is, and what his disposition towards us may be, to be determined by our emotions. This may seem natural to us, but it is potentially catastrophic in our spiritual lives.

This postmodern worldview, whose creed could be summed up in the phrase, “follow your heart,” demands not only that we be dependent on emotion over cognition, but also on rapid personal fulfillment over delayed gratification.

In fact, “following our hearts” often simply means “if it feels good do it.” It is typically fallen human hearts that most readily follow their own desires, often at the expense of others and, ultimately, at the expense of God. “Follow your heart” has become a mantra in today’s Western world, and many Christians have unknowingly bought into this mantra.

Ironically, when we do not automatically equate good feelings with right action, and use our cognitive faculties as a truer guide, we often find that the positive emotions we yearned for are the eventual fruit of our rational decision making. It is not that feeling good is a bad thing in and of itself, but rather that it simply should not be used as our primary compass in life. God Himself is the source of all innocent pleasures, and, when kept in their proper context, we are able to be blessed by God through them to the full.

No doubt some of this emotional corrective is right on target. Dry intellectualism obsessed only with “right doctrine” is not conducive to the fully orbed experience of God in all aspects of our being that He Himself desires us to have. The placement of reason high above emotion has too often been worn as a sort of “badge of biblical legitimacy” in the evangelical world, sometimes to the point of demonizing denominations that stress emotional experience as a legitimate aspect of worship. We truly have suffered


from the larger culture’s captivity to scientific modernism and too often been subtly assimilated into secularism’s blind faith in the ability of human reason to capture all truth, including theological truth. It is not wrong to acknowledge the need for emotional passion in our pursuit of a God who shows abundant evidence in Scripture of being emotionally passionate Himself. Our hearts must connect with our Lord just as surely as our minds.

That said, it behooves us to remember that human reason, even fallen human reason, is, at the least, imperfectly derived from a God of order as well as passion. Signs of divine order produced by supremely rational thought are no less present in the Bible, or in the natural world, than are signs of divine passion. Reminders of this aspect of God’s character exist all around us. The realms of mathematics, physics and astronomy (to name just a few) eloquently speak of logical design. In fact, all of the applied sciences that gave rise to the astounding technologies we denizens of the 21st century take for granted are based on utilizing the rationally consistent natural order our Lord ordained in the physical universe.

If God were a God only of chaotic passion, emotional or otherwise, we would not experience the fixed day to day realities that allow us to “subdue the earth” as Scripture commands. The natural laws of the universe are the product of a rational God and it is their utilization by our lesser minds that has given us legitimate, if limited, power over creation. Our life decisions, large and small, need to be informed not just by our emotions but also by our thinking. Emotions are, by nature, subjective. While rational thought may also contain strains of subjectivity, it is more likely to come into contact with objective truth,

especially when we are thinking biblically with the help of the Holy Spirit. Such objective truth is the font of divine wisdom and can help us to travel the safe paths for our souls which our God has prepared for us to travel.

There is nothing wrong with restoring feelings and emotions to their rightful place in the Christian life. Jesus Christ was no Stoic, no pure rationalist with the worldview of Star Trek’s logic-obsessed Mr. Spock. Rather, the Son of God embodied both reason and passion in perfect measure. His followers should not be afraid of experiencing either aspect of the divine nature, insofar as they do not make an idol of either.

Blaise Pascal famously said that “the heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.” Although this is indeed a true statement, the human heart also has reasons of which reason does know something. Such reason should not be rejected simply because the postmodern Church is reacting against an earlier philosophical extreme. As is most often the case, the truth lies in balance. The best thing the Church as a whole can do today is seek such a balance between reason and emotion while respecting the God-given value of both.

Converted from Atheism in 1990, Shea Oakley has written over 350 articles for electronic and print publications since

2002, including Disciple Magazine (and Pulpit Helps Magazine), The Christian Herald, The Christian Post,

Christian Network and Crosshome.com. In 2003 he graduated from Alliance Theological Seminary with a Certificate of Theological Studies. Shea and his wife

Kathleen make their home in West Milford, New Jersey.

_____________________________________________________________________________Charles Haddon Spurgeon on EasterFour meditations on the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord

I. Lamenting for the Lord“And there followed him a great company of

people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him” (Luke 23:27).

Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to His doom, there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and lamentations—fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul can, in imagination, see the Savior bearing His cross to Calvary, it joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief—cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought.

They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders,

and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity: but my having been His murderer, is more, infinitely more, grief than one poor fountain of tears can express. Why those women loved and wept it was not hard to guess: but they could not have had greater reasons for love and grief than my heart has.

Nain’s widow saw her son restored—but I myself have been raised to newness of life. Peter’s wife’s mother was cured of the fever—but I of the greater plague of sin. Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast—but a whole legion out of me. Mary and Martha were favored with visits—but He dwells with me. His mother bore His body—but He is formed in me the hope of glory. In nothing behind the


holy women in debt, let me not be behind them in gratitude or sorrow.

“Love and grief my heart dividing,With my tears His feet I’ll lave—Constant still in heart abiding,Weep for Him who died to save.”

II. Bearing His Cross“And as they led Him away, they laid hold upon one

Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus” (Luke 23:26).

We see in Simon’s carrying the cross a picture of the work of the Church throughout all generations; she is the cross-bearer after Jesus. Mark then, Christian, Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it. Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer.

But let us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon’s, it is not our cross, but Christ’s cross which we carry. When you are molested for your piety; when your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you, then remember it is not your cross, it is Christ’s cross; and how delightful is it to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus! You carry the cross after Him. You have blessed company; your path is marked with the footprints of your Lord. The mark of His blood-red shoulder is upon that heavy burden. It is His cross, and He goes before you as a shepherd goes before his sheep.

Take up your cross daily, and follow Him. Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in partnership. It is the opinion of some that Simon only carried one end of the cross, and not the whole of it. That is very possible; Christ may have carried the heavier part, against the transverse beam, and Simon may have borne the lighter end. Certainly it is so with you; you do but carry the light end of the cross, Christ bore the heavier end.

And remember, though Simon had to bear the cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honor. Even so the cross we carry is only for a little while at most, and then we shall receive the crown, the glory. Surely we should love the cross, and, instead of shrinking from it, count it very dear, when it works out for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

III. By His Stripes We Are Healed “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He

was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:5).

Pilate delivered our Lord to the lictors to be scourged. The Roman scourge was a most dreadful

instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were inter-twisted every here and there among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration, and tore off the flesh from the bone. The Savior was, no doubt, bound to the column, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before; but this of the Romans was probably the most severe of His flagellations.

My soul, stand here and weep over His poor stricken body. Believer in Jesus, can you gaze upon Him without tears, as He stands before you the mirror of agonizing love? He is at once fair as the lily for innocence, and red as the rose with the crimson of His own blood. As we feel the sure and blessed healing which His stripes have wrought in us, does not our heart melt at once with love and grief? If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus, surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our bosoms.

“See how the patient Jesus stands,Insulted in His lowest case!Sinners have bound the Almighty’s hands,And spit in their Creator’s face.With thorns His temples gor’d and gash’dSend streams of blood from every part;His back’s with knotted scourges lash’d.But sharper scourges tear His heart.”

We would fain go to our chambers and weep; but since our business calls us away, we will first pray our Beloved to print the image of His bleeding self upon the tablets of our hearts all the day, and at nightfall we will return to commune with Him, and sorrow that our sin should have cost Him so dear.

IV. All My Bones Are Out of Joint “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are

out of joint; my heart is like wax, it is melted within me” (Ps. 22:14).

Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body, our Lord felt Himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all His bones. Burdened with His own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours.

His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering; while to His own consciousness He became nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision, he thus describes his sensations, “There remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength” (Dan. 10:8). How much more faint must have been our greater Prophet when He saw the dread vision of the wrath of God, and felt it in His own soul! To us,


sensations such as our Lord endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to our rescue; but in His case, He was wounded, and felt the sword; He drained the cup and tasted every drop.

“O King of Grief! (a title strange, yet trueTo Thee of all kings only due)O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for

Thee, Who in all grief preventest me!”

As we kneel before our now ascended Savior’s throne, let us remember well the way by which He prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink of His cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness

whenever it may come. In His natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the spiritual; but as out of all His griefs and woes His body came forth uninjured to glory and power, even so shall His mystical body come through the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon it.

These selections from Morning and Evening.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), “the Prince of Preachers,” was a renowned pastor and author who served as pastor of London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle for 38 years. His works are still widely read today.

_____________________________________________________________________________Exegetically Speaking—by Spiros Zodhiates

The Parable of the Wicked Vine-Growers Matthew 21:33-46

From Exegetical Commentary on Matthew, 2006, AMG Publishers

[33] Jesus continued His series: “Hear (akoúsate, the aorist imperative of akoúō [191], to hear, the aorist inferring ‘now’) another (from állos [243], another of the same kind, one which illustrates the official Jewish rejection of their Messiah) parable.” The term “official” refers to the chief priests and elders, the highest leaders of the Pharisaic and Sadducean parties.

This parable prophetically details how the religious leaders of Israel would treat the Son of God and what will happen to them as a result. Because of their broad exposure to scriptural prophecies, these leaders had a much greater opportunity to accept their Messiah than the laypeople. The parable thus warned all those who had some knowledge of Christ but finally (hústeron) rejected Him.

Jesus likened the kingdom of God to this: “a householder (oikodespótēs [3617], house master; from oíkos [3624], house; and despótēs [1203], despot, absolute ruler) planted (from phuteúō [5452], to plant) a vineyard and put around it a hedge (phragmón [5418], a thorny hedge; associated with the verb phrássō [5420], to fence), and dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower (from púrgos [4444]), and let it out (from ekdídōmi [1554], to hire) to husbandmen (from geōrgós [1092], farmer), and went into a far country (from apodēméō [589], to emigrate)” (a.t.).

The householder’s care to grow a good crop of grapes and protect them was emphasized with several verbs. Unlike the verb speírō (4687), which carries the idea of scattering (seed), phuteúō implies the digging of individual holes and placing specific seeds or plants in properly

prepared ground to ensure success (cf. Matt. 15:13; Mark 4:26–29). After this careful planting, the householder put a protective, thorny hedge around the vineyard to keep animals (i.e., intruders) out, built a watchtower to protect against thieves, and leased the vineyard to professional farmers.

The noun oikodespótēs is used in Matthew 10:25 for Satan, Beelzebub, who rules over the house of evil, which Jesus despoils whenever He robs Satan of one of his subjects. “How can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? And then he will spoil his house” (Matt. 12:29). It’s also used in Matthew 20:1 where Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder.” It is not necessary for every detail in a parable to have an exact heavenly analogue. This parable follows one in Isaiah where God (the Father) “hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill” (Isa. 5:1) and does essentially the same things to it (5:2).

[34] Eventually, the owner sent servants to the tenant farmers to receive a full accounting of profits. “And when the time (kairós [2540], season, proper time) of the fruit (from karpós [2590], fruit) drew near, he sent his servants (from doúlos [1401], laborers, slaves) to the husbandmen [farmers], that they might receive the fruits of it.”

[35] The reaction to the owner’s servants was inconceivably wicked: “And the husbandmen, having taken (from lambánō [2983], to take) his servants, on the one hand, beat (from dérō [1194], to flay, take skin off, thrash) one, and killed (from apokteínō [615]) another, and stoned (from lithoboléō [3036] from líthos [3037], stone; and bállō, throw) another” (a.t.).


Not a single servant, it seems, escaped unharmed. This abominable history of the apostate reaction to God’s prophets stretches all the way back to the first death on the face of the earth: “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (Matt. 23:35). “And in her [Babylon] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Rev. 18:24).

[36] This treatment of the first round of servants (prophets) did not deter the owner of the farm from sending more slaves to the vineyard. “Again, he sent other (from állos) servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.” Like the first set, these servants were not warriors. They were innocent, peace-loving logistics managers sent to collect and transport what properly belonged to the owner. Again, the farmers mercilessly maimed and murdered every one of them, hoping to steal, the farm.

[37] The patience of the householder symbolizes God’s patience with humankind (Rom. 2:4) in spite of their rejection of Him. “But last of all (hústeron [5305], eventually, at the end; i.e., of those sent to gather fruit; see v. 32) he sent unto them his son (from huiós [5207]), saying, ‘They will reverence (from entrépō [1788], to reverence or make ashamed; from en [1722], in; and trépō [n.f.], to be ashamed of) my son’.” The householder mistakenly assumed that they would respect his son more than they had his servants.

The human subject of a parable may make a mistake, but God the Father, analogously represented by the householder, is inerrant. Not every element of a parable has to be predicated to God (cf. e.g., hō kritēs tēs adikías for the “unjust judge” in Luke 18:6; Christ’s judgments are just (dikaías kríses in John 5:30). Even though people killed His Son, they will fall down in respect before the Father either in this world on conversion (Zech. 12:10, cf. Rev. 1:7) or in the world to come before the judgment seat of Christ (Isa. 66:16; Luke 9:26; Phil. 2:10; 1 John 2:28).

The fact that the vineyard is “let out” again (v. 41) shows that this is not the final judgment scene.

[38, 39] The husbandmen jump at the new opportunity: “But the husbandmen, having seen (from horáō [3708], to perceive) the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir (klēronómos [2818]). Come, let us kill him, and let us seize (from katéchō [2722] from katá [2596], an intensive meaning down; and échō [2192], to hold; thus, to hold down, suppress) his inheritance (from klēronomía [2817]).’ And they caught him, cast (from ekbállō [1544]) him out of the vineyard, and slew him” (a.t.).

There is a minor variant in a few older manuscripts, followed by UBS and most modern versions, using the

simple verb échō (2192), to hold or to have, rather than katéchō (2722), to seize, but it doesn’t really change the meaning of the farmers’ proposal. Katáschesis (2697) is an interesting modern Greek word, meaning a legal seizure of another’s property. The phrase “out[side] of the vineyard” is equivalent to “without the camp” (Heb. 13:11, 13) and “without the gate” (i.e., of Jerusalem; Heb. 13:12) where Jesus was crucified. The vineyard itself was God’s cultivated field entrusted to the Jews (Isa. 5:1–7).

These jealous and murderous farmers conspired together (“among themselves”) to kill the heir in order to steal his inheritance. Their shortsighted stupidity made them think they would never have to contend with a Father who once said, “’Vengeance is mine; I will repay,’ saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19; cf. Deut. 32:35). Paul also tells us that “the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9). Not only will murderers not inherit, but also death will not prevent the Son of God from inheriting all things.

In the analogy, of course, Jesus Christ is the Father’s heir: “[God] hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir (from klēronómos) of all things” (Heb. 1:2, cf. v. 4; Rom. 8:17; Gal. 4:7). Moreover, Paul tells us that the children of God are heirs with Christ according to God’s promise (Gal. 3:29) through faith (Rom. 4:16) and even through suffering (Rom. 8:17, cf. 2 Cor. 1:5–7). Today more Christians are suffering and dying worldwide for the cause of Christ than ever before.

The murderous husbandmen thought they could obtain the inheritance by seizure. Earlier, Jesus had thus characterized all those who sought to be justified by the Mosaic Law once John the Baptist announced the kingdom: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven is violated (from biázō [971]), and the violent (from biastēs [973]) take it by force (from harpázō [726], to snatch away by force, seize)” (Matt. 11:12; a.t.). The unbelieving chief priests and elders thought they could both seize (biázō, harpázō) and forcibly retain (katéchō) the kingdom of God.

[40] The angry father returns, not as “householder,” certainly not as “father”—he never had this relationship with the farmers—but as judge. This is not good news for the lessees. “When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh (from érchomai [2064]), what will he do unto those husbandmen?” By asking this question, Jesus prepared His opponents for self-condemnation. Also by saying “those,” Jesus distanced Himself personally from the “wicked” men. Here we are reminded of those awful words, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23).

[41] The parable overall reflected the same methodology Nathan used with David: Tell a parable about some malevolent person that angers your listener, then let him know, “Thou art the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7). “They say


unto him, He will miserably (from kakōs [2560], badly) destroy (from apóllumi [622], ruin) those wicked (from kakós [2556]; used in the same sense as earlier—they are wicked, so they will inherit wickedness) men, and will let out (from ekdídōmi [1554], to lease, the same verb used in v. 33) his vineyard unto other (from állos) husbandmen, which shall render (from apodídōmi [591], to give back, recompense) him the fruits in their seasons (from kairós).”

The wicked will reap what they sow. The chief priests and elders understood what justice was, and the story was incredibly provocative, aimed, as it was, against them. We cannot relate the events of the parable to the Second Coming of Christ because the householder leases to new tenant farmers. It is amazing that the chief priests and elders prophesy the end of their own Jewish dispensation and the reallocation of the kingdom to the Church! They correctly deduced from the parable the justice associated with destroying the murderous farmers and giving the farm to others who would produce crops. God takes the kingdom away from apostates and gives it to believers. That this is a national judgment against apostate Israel will become evident in verse 43.

Fruitfulness in due season is the Lord’s interest and demand. In the parables of the talents (Matt. 25:14–30) and the pounds (Luke 19:11–27), Jesus applauded investment returns of 500 and 1,000 percent while the one burying His talents was inexcusable. Here the owner turned the vineyard over to responsible men after removing it from those who would seize the vineyard for themselves. The Jews had abused the many privileges they had been given (Rom. 3:1-2).

[42] Since the chief priests and scribes were students of the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus quoted a relevant prophecy from Psalms 118:22, 23: “Did you never (oudépote [3763] from ou [3756], not; dé [1161], even; and poté [4218], at some time; “not even at any time,” ever) read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone that the builders rejected (apedokímasan, the aorist tense of apodokimázō [593], disapprove), this became (egenēthē, the aorist passive deponent of gínomai [1096]) the head (from kephalē [2776]) of the corner (from gonía [1137])’? This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous (from thaumastós [2298], admirable) in our eyes” (a.t.).

The Davidic prophecy is general, a theme picked up later by Paul: “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are” (1 Cor. 1:27-28).

Paul also asks the rhetorical question, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Rom. 8:33), that is, “Who will condemn what

God justifies or reject what He has chosen?” David tells us some are depraved enough to do such things but only to their frustration. What people humiliate, God exalts. The rejected stone will become the cornerstone of the building. Such victories of God should excite us.

The historical aorist tenses, “rejected” and “became,” summarize the premier instance of this—the Jews rejected Christ, and His Father accepted Him. As John says, “He came unto His own (tá ídia, the neuter accusative plural of ídios [2398], one’s own; i.e., “his own things—country, land”), but His own (hoi ídioi, the masculine nominative plural of ídios; i.e., “His own people”) received Him not” (John 1:11; a.t.). But God raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to His own right hand: “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30-31).

Given unambiguous prophecy, the Israelites should have recognized and accepted their Messiah. Instead, they completed the sins of their fathers (Matt. 23:32) by killing another prophet, this time “that prophet” (John 1:21; cf. Deut. 18:18). But the Father “made that same Jesus…both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). He is the “living (from záō [2198], to live) stone (from líthos [3037])” (1 Pet. 2:4), the “chief corner” (from akrogōniaíos [204] from ákron [206], extremity; and gōnía [1137], corner) stone on which the Church is founded (1 Pet. 2:6, cf. Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20).

Those acquainted with construction would understand Jesus’ words. Without a cornerstone, the walls of an edifice would not hold together. The marvel is how an obscure carpenter from a remote region could teach and minister for just three-and-a-half years of His 33 years of life, be crucified without cause, be despised and rejected by the majority, and have His resurrection classified as the pinnacle fraud of his followers. And yet He became the foundation of a multimillion-member body that thrives to this day.

[43] The prophecy of the chief cornerstone came with a dire warning to the generation of Jews that rejected Jesus’ messianic status: “On account (diá [1223], for) of this, I say unto you that the kingdom of God shall be taken (arthēsetai, the future passive of aírō [142], to take away) from you and shall be given (dothēsetai, the future passive of dídōmi [1325], to give) to a nation (from éthnos [1484], Gentile nation or people) bringing forth the fruits of it (autēs [846], the genitive singular feminine personal pronoun, referring to the kingdom)” (a.t.).

This statement clearly depicted Israel’s rejection of Christ and Christ’s subsequent rejection of Israel from whom He would take (reflected in the passive voice of arthēsetai) the kingdom away. There is no other way to read the words, “taken from you, and given to [another]


nation.” This is equivalent to His earlier words in verse 41, “He will destroy those wicked men and let out his vineyard to other farmers, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons” (a.t.). The general principle of deprivation (aírō, to take away) is given in Matthew 13:12: “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away (arthēsetai) even that he hath.”

The generation that murdered Christ, already oppressed by the Romans, was slaughtered in A. D. 70 when the Roman general, Titus, invaded and destroyed Jerusalem and leveled the temple. This was all in accord with Jesus’ prophecy that the “house” of Jerusalem would be desolate until they say, “Blessed is he [Jesus] that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Luke 13:35, cf. Acts 3:21). According to Paul, Israel will remain partially hardened until the fullness of the Gentiles is in, implying that the new nation, which is the Church, will be predominantly composed of Gentiles (Rom. 11:25). In terms of Israel’s desolation, at a point beyond His turning away from the Jews and to the Gentiles, Paul summarizes: “Ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thess. 2:14–16).

All this will change when, as we noted earlier, the Deliverer returns and turns ungodliness from Jacob (Rom. 11:26). In the interim, the Church, the universal body of Christ that incorporates believers from “every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Rev. 5:9), is itself called a holy nation (i.e., one that produces fruit): “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation (éthnos [1484]), a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”(1 Pet. 2:9).

[44] Jesus elaborated on the roles of the chief cornerstone. When it is detached from the “house” of Jerusalem (Luke 13:35), that house will collapse. In addition, as a stand-alone, this huge rock judges both nations and individuals: “And the one who falls (from píptō [4098], to fall) on this stone shall be shattered (from sunthláō [4917] from sún [4862], together; and thláō [n.f.], to break, crush, dash in pieces; Luke 20:18; Sept.: Mic. 3:3, etc.): but on whomever it shall fall, it will pulverize (from likmáō [3039]) him” (a.t.).

He specified two judgments: the first will shatter those who take it lightly. The second will pulverize those who willfully and continually reject Him. These Jews militantly opposed Jesus. Many were Sadducees who denied the vast majority of revelation from Joshua through

Malachi—therefore the majority of the prophecies of a Messiah—and core truths like the existence of angels and spirits and the resurrection from the dead.

This is the ultimate result of unbelief. The verb likmáō is associated with the noun líkmos (n.f.), a winnowing fork used by ancient wheat farmers to toss wheat in the air so that kernels would separate and fall to the ground while the chaff would be blown away by the wind. This process of separating wheat from chaff was called likmáō, a type of judgment, the judging being a separation.

[45] The parables were clearly aimed at the highest members of the Sanhedrin. All three Synoptic writers, Matthew (v. 45), Mark (12:12), and Luke (20:19), write that Jesus directed this parable “against” the chief priests and scribes: “When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard (from akoúō) His parables (from parabolē [3850], that is, this one and the one about the two sons [vv. 28–32]), they knew (from ginōskō [1097], to know by experience) that He spoke of them” (a.t.).

The accusation was terrible and the threat ominous. Jesus effectively called them abusers, murderers (vv. 35–39), and “wicked” (from kakós [2556], v. 41). He said that the kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to others—their own judgment in verse 41—and, in the process, they would either be broken in pieces or ground to powder as God judged that generation of their nation.

[46] Infuriated by jealousy and their humiliation before the crowds, the Pharisees “…were seeking (zētoúntes, the present active participle of zētéō [2212]) to arrest (kratēsai, the aorist active infinitive of kratéō [2902], to take by force, the aorist implying once for all) Him, but they became afraid (ephobēthēsan, the aorist passive of phobéō [5399], to frighten) of the multitude, because they were continuously having (eíchon, the imperfect tense of échō [2192]) Him for a prophet (from prophētēs [4396] from pró [4253], before; and phēmí [5346], to speak; thus, one who predicts events)” (a.t.).

The chief priests’ and scribes’ resentment eclipsed all consideration of Jesus’ miracles. Yet these leaders knew that the “multitudes” (from óchlos [3793], a disorganized crowd) accepted Jesus and followed Him. The organized authorities (v. 23) were always afraid of the multitudes, fearful perhaps that they could even turn the Romans against them.

These leaders were also cognizant of the disciples’ faith and the favorable impression Jesus left on people. The crowds themselves had concluded that since John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, was a prophet (Matt. 14:5; 21:26), then Jesus of Nazareth was also a prophet (v. 11). The chief priests and the scribes (v. 15) thus ultimately feared Jesus’ reputation. Unwilling to acknowledge His


deity, they were forced to concede His exceptional popularity among the people He taught and healed.

Spiros Zodhiates (1922-2009) served as president of AMG International for over 40 years, was the founding editor of

Pulpit Helps Magazine (Disciple’s predecessor), and authored dozens of exegetical books.

_____________________________________________________________________________Following God—by Wayne Barber

Thank God for His Mercy!

Editor’s Note: Wayne is still “recovering” from a cross-country move, so we’ve pulled this piece from our archives to give him a breather. Originally published in Pulpit Helps, April 2001.

The word “mercy” is a wonderful word in Scripture. In the New Testament, it translates the Greek éleos. Mercy is not the same as grace. Grace is God’s transforming power in our lives and deals with our sin. But mercy is the ability that God gives, either directly or through another, to help us bear up under the consequences of our sin. That is why we are not told to show grace but we are told to show mercy. In fact, the mercy that will be shown to us one day will be according to the mercy we have been willing in God’s power to show to others.

Tucked away in the little book of James are these potent words: “So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:12-13). When one is living by the “law of liberty,” this means (in my understanding) living by the “law of hearing,” as found in James1:25. Under the “law of liberty,” when one hears the Word he must immediately respond to it in obedience, and in so doing is set free from himself. He is liberated from the power of his flesh. When that takes place, then the Spirit produces in him a compassionate heart which motivates the mercy that is desperately needed in this world. Mercy is not some human emotion worked up and then displayed so we can take credit for it; it is a fruit of God working in a “doer of the Word” who has learned to live by the law of liberty.

We all desperately need this mercy. We all make stupid choices and they all have their consequences. We are all guilty and therefore we all are in need of the ability to bear up under the consequences of our sin. A person who shows mercy to others is a person who lives in the mercy that God is showing him. In Matthew 5:7 it says, “Blessed

are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” The word “blessed” here is makários. It means “fully, inwardly satisfied,” not just “happy,” as some translate it. Matthew is saying that those who are fully, inwardly satisfied with Christ are those who are the ones showing others mercy. The implication is that they themselves are daily living in the mercies that God is bestowing upon them.

When I think of God’s mercy that I do not deserve and the people He has led into my life to help me bear up under the consequences of my sin, how can I be anything but merciful to others when I witness their suffering around me? I love the message of 2 Cor. 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” He is the wellspring of all comfort. Unless you’ve drunk from that well, then you have no idea of what I’m talking about.

You see, there are some in the Body of Christ that seem so insensitive to the consequences of another’s sin. They are so judgmental and opinionated when it comes to those who do not make wise choices. May I just suggest to that dear proud brother that his day is coming. No one has arrived, and when we do fail and are under the difficult pain of the consequences of wrong choices, it is then that we will cry out for God’s mercies. It is then that we will praise Him for the kind brother who comes alongside us and doesn’t judge us, because he has been there, but simply loves us and helps us in our time of need.

Oh, the mercies of God! They are fresh every day! And oh, how wonderful are those believers that allow God to work in them and through them that help us bear up under the consequences of our sin. Open our eyes, Lord, that we might see others who are desperate in their need!

Wayne Barber is senior pastor of Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

http://www.amginternational.org/



_____________________________________________________________________________Words to Stand You on Your Feet—by Joe McKeever

What the Godly Elderly Can Expect

“They will still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green” (Psalm 92:14).

A godly old person is a work of art, something worth beholding.

Define: “Old.” Not me, buster. Never in a hundred years. By that, I mean the way I react when a woman says, “Guess how old I am.” Laverne did that to me a few weeks ago. I served as her pastor decades ago, and probably had a general idea of her age. But I said, “Do I look to you like I’ve lost my mind? There is no way I’m going to guess your age. Not in a hundred years would I attempt it.” Then she told me her age. I was stunned. I would have missed—under-guessing—by two decades or more.

Old, someone has said, is twenty years older than yourself. As a rule, that’s probably pretty accurate, but no longer for me—I turned 71 this week, and know that I’m edging pretty close to the dividing line. No amount of walking on the levee, doing pushups in front of the television, or pumping those small weights slows down the passage of time for one minute. The years come and then they go, leaving their mark, taking their toll. And that’s just fine. It’s how God set up the world.

But there is good news. God has made promises to His children who walk with Him faithfully into those senior years. Psalm 92:14 contains three such promises. However, before looking at them, let us remind ourselves of something vital. What God has not promised is that you and I will get to be among those old people. Growing old is a privilege. It means we are blessed with long life. Scripture sees this as a blessing from Heaven. However, no one is guaranteed a certain number of years.

Growing old is a privilege denied to a great many. Over these 50 years in the ministry, I have conducted funerals for people of all ages, from infancy up. Some we buried in young adulthood, as they left their little children behind, never to see them grow up and marry and have babies of their own. They would have given everything they owned to have the privilege you and I are being given, to grow old. To be called seniors.

Many of us do something really strange in this regard: We don’t want to die; however, we do not want to get old. Think of the contradiction. We want to continue living and not die, but we don’t want to get old in the process. We want it both ways. I suggest we all embrace our senior-hood. Accept those lines in the face and the grey in the hair and when necessary, the stoop to the shoulders.

It’s a small price we pay for being allowed to continue breathing—living and serving, loving and giving.

For those who will serve God through their years and continue into the latter years, God gives three promises:

I. You Will Be Fruitful“They will still bring forth fruit in old age….”As far as I can tell, Scripture speaks of two kinds of

fruit for believers: the inner fruit of the Spirit, which is Christlikeness, and outer fruit in the lives of other people as we encourage them, minister to them, witness to them, edify them in the Lord.

The first kind—the inner Christlikeness—is described in Galatians 5:22-23 as: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.” The second kind—making a difference in the lives of other people—is what the Lord had in mind when He said, “Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. So shall you prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).

Notice the promise is that you will “still bring forth fruit” in old age. This presupposes the person was actively serving God and making a difference in the lives of others in his or her younger years. He or she will go right on doing what they’ve been doing all those earlier years. No letup, no abatement.

II. You Will Be Youthful“…they shall be full of sap….”In the Tyndale Commentaries, Derek Kidner writes:

“It is not the greenness of perpetual youth, but the freshness of age without sterility, like that of Moses whose ‘eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated’ (Deut. 34:7).”

It’s clear the psalmist is using a tree metaphor in this psalm. Earlier, he said, “The righteous will flourish like the palm tree; he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon” (92:12). The cedars of Lebanon were massive and durable. Even today, the national flag of that country is adorned by the image of one of its historic cedar trees. We’re told that palm trees grow from the inside out, in contrast to the typical way most trees add outer rings. The two images suggest that God’s faithful people will grow into mighty towers of influence, with the growth occurring from the inside.

“They shall be full of sap….” I’m not sure why I love this line so much. We sometimes speak of zesty people as “full of vinegar” or “full of themselves.” This expression


is translated in some Scriptural versions as “vigorous” or “fresh.” The life of a tree is in its sap. Cut off the flow of sap in the springtime and the tree dies. God is promising that the believer who has served Him through the decades and continues in his faithfulness will be alive and alert, youthful and zestful.

What qualities do you think of as youthful? See if they work for you: joyful, alive, interested, curious, happy, energetic, ambitious, outgoing, growing, inquisitive, teachable. They all work for me. This is the kind of person the Holy Spirit is making us as we walk in the Spirit through the years. We grow more and more young.

Pablo Picasso said, “It takes a long time to become young.” Playwright Garson Kanin liked that line so much, he made it the title of a delightful book on aging, written a generation ago. “He satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed...” (Ps.103:5).

III. You Will Be Beautiful“They shall be…very green.”If the faithful disciple of the Lord is a “tree planted

by steams of water,” the image of Psalm 1, then the godly elderly disciple is an evergreen “…whose leaf does not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper.”

Scholars are not quite sure what to do with believers who are described as “very green.” In our culture, “green” means many things. Those who are “going green” are into conservation and recycling and responsible stewarding of earth’s resources. A person new on the job and still learning the ropes is said to be green. So what did the psalmist have in mind for believers to be called “very green”? Some translations say: “Flourishing” and “sturdy.” May I suggest the word “beautiful”? The idea is that year round, the leaves on this tree are bright and lovely and healthy, not dried and fallen to the ground.

There is a beauty to a godly old person which—if I may be allowed to say—is not true of the same people when they were godly younger people. Mildred Phillips and Nannie Kate Smith were in my congregation in Columbus, Mississippi, where I served from 1974 into 1986. Mildred was born in 1895 and Nannie Kate perhaps 10 years later. Now, both are in Heaven and are having the time of their

lives. So, we’re okay to talk about them behind their backs. I’m about to say something I would never ever had said to their faces—neither was a raving beauty in worldly terms.

In old church publications where members were photographed in the 1930s-40s, both women were prominent. They were godly women who delighted in serving the Lord. They were active in the First Baptist Church and became pillars for decades. Neither of the two women ever gave a pastor a moment’s problem. They were sweet-spirited with wonderful senses of humor. They could be counted on for prayer, for generosity, for godly wisdom, for service. The strangest thing was that the older they got the more beautiful they became. There was a light in their souls which shone through their eyes. Their voices were sweet, their hearts were light, they delighted in laughter and they gave great hugs. People flocked to them and loved to be in their presence.

Any pastor would give a year of his life to have even one of those women in his church; I had them both.

I was no longer her pastor when Mildred—we called her Aunt Millie—went to Heaven. But I was there to help Nannie Kate celebrate her 100th birthday at a local retirement center where she was living. That day, she told jokes and kept everyone in stitches.

I’ve heard it said that the devil has no sweet old people. I’ve never checked to see if that’s true, but it’s probably right. His old people carry shriveled souls, barren lives, brittle minds, fossilized imaginations, and negative spirits.

In a book by this title, Eugene Peterson quotes the philosopher Nietzsche on the value of “a long obedience in the same direction.” That’s the secret. That’s how God pulls this off and turns a regular, run-of-the-mill believer into something to behold, a godly character worthy of the highest praise.

Lord, make us like Jesus. Make us fruitful, youthful, beautiful. For Thee. For Thy glory. Amen.

Joe McKeever is a retired Southern Baptist pastor from New Orleans, Louisiana. He blogs regularly at

www.joemckeever.com.

_____________________________________________________________________________Jewels from Past Giants

The First and Greatest Commandment: Humility—Part 2By Timothy Dwight

Editor’s Note: Originally published in 1823 as a chapter in Theology Explained and Defended in a Series of Sermons, a posthumous collection of Dwight’s works.

Edited slightly for modern spellings and length. Part one comprised the April edition of “Jewels from Past Giants”.

http://www.joemckeever.com/


“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject to one another and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5).

II. Humility Involves a Train of Affections Accordant with Such a Sense of Our Character and Conditions

It involves that candor and equity, which dispose us to receive and acknowledge truth, however humbling to our pride, or painful to our fears in preference to error, however soothing or flattering. The humble man feels assured, also, that it is his true interest to know and feel the worst of his situation; that a just sense of his condition may be the means rendering it more hopeful and more desirable; that false conceptions of it, on the contrary, cannot possibly do him any good, and will in all probability, do him much harm. That truth is a highway which may conduct him to heaven; but that error is a labyrinth in which he may be lost forever.

Equally disposed is he to do justice to the several subjects of his contemplation. Cheerfully is he ready to feel and to acknowledge that he is just such a being as he actually is; that he is no wiser, no better, no more honorable, and no more safe, but just as lowly, as dependent, as ignorant, as guilty, and as much in danger, as truth pronounces him to be. With the humiliation, dependence, and precariousness of his circumstances he is satisfied, because they are ordained by his Maker.

His guilt he acknowledges to be real and, at the sight of it, willingly takes his place in the dust. His sufferings he confesses to be merited, and therefore bows submissively beneath the rod. Claims he makes none, for he feels that there is nothing in himself to warrant them; and, although he wishes ardently to escape from his sin and misery, he never thinks to demanding it as a right; but, so far as he is permitted, humbly hopes it as a gift of free grace, as a mere blessing derived from the overflowing mercy of his Creator.

Among the subjects which his situation forces upon his mind, the means of expiating his guilt become one of primary importance. After surveying it on every side, he pronounces the attempt hopeless and sees with full conviction that, if God should mark iniquity, it would be impossible for him to stand. In this melancholy situation he does not, like the man of the world, rise up in haughty rebellion against God; he does not say, “Who is the Almighty, that I should serve him; and what profit shall I have, if I pray unto Him?” (Job 21:5). He does not insolently exclaim, “Why doth He yet find fault, for who hath resisted His will?” (Rom. 9:19).

On the contrary, in the language of Job, he modestly cries out, “Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. I abhor myself,

and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 40:4; 42:6). With Daniel he sets his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fastings, and sackcloth, and ashes; and he prays unto the Lord his God, and makes his confession, and says, “O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love thee; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments” (Daniel 9:4-5).

But, although in himself he sees no means of deliverance or escape, he finds in the Scriptures of truth, ample provision made for both. The provision is complete. An expiation is there made for the sins of men; and a deliverance from the miseries to which were destined, effectuated; which involve all that the most sanguine mind can wish concerning both. Still, the scheme involves an absolute humiliation of human pride; for it represents man as totally destitute of anything in his native character, or in his efforts, which can recommend him to God, or which can be regarded by the final Judge as any ground of his justification. It is a scheme of mere mercy; and everyone who is to receive the blessings of it must come in the character of a penitent, supplicating for pardon through the righteousness of a Redeemer.

Nothing can be more painful to pride than this scheme of deliverance; but nothing can be more welcome to the heart of genuine humility. God, in the great work of forgiving, redeeming, and sanctifying man, appears to the humble penitential mind, invested with peculiar glory, excellence, and loveliness. “God,” says St. Paul, “who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). In the work of redemption, accomplished by this Divine person, the character of God is seen by the sanctified mind in a light entirely new, and more honorable to him than that which is presented by any other work either of Creation or Providence.

His benevolence shines here, in the exercise of mercy towards the apostate children of men, in a manner which is new and singular, a manner in which it has been displayed to the inhabitants of no other part of the universe. Here, especially, it is discerned that God is Love; and the humble penitent is so deeply affected with the kindness manifested in expiating and forgiving sin, and renewing the soul, that he is ready to exclaim with the Psalmist, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake” (Ps. 115:1).

In the midst of his astonishment that such mercy should be extended to him, a poor, guilty, miserable wretch, unworthy in his own view of the least of all mercies, the pride even of self-righteousness is for a while at least laid asleep, and his thoughts and affections, instead of being


turned towards himself, are absorbed in the condescension and goodness of his Father, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

It is impossible for the man, in whom this attribute is found, not to turn his thoughts from time to time to the perfect purity of God. No subject of contemplation can more strongly impress upon the mind a sense of its own impurity. In His sight the heavens themselves are not clean, and the angels before Him are charged with folly. How much more abominable and filthy to the eye of the penitent must man appear, who drinketh iniquity like water! In the sight of this awful and most affecting object, he will almost necessarily exclaim, with Job, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee! Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).

When such a man contemplates the character of his Christian brethren, emotions of the same general nature will necessarily occupy his mind. St. Paul has directed Christians to forbear one another “in all lowliness and meekness of mind” (Eph. 4:2), and to “esteem others better than [themselves]” (Phil. 2:3). This precept which to a man of the world appears absurd and incapable of being obeyed, involves no difficulty in the eye of him who is evangelically humble.

The sins of other Christians are, of course, imperfectly known to him. Their sins of thought are all hidden from his eyes: their sins of action he rarely witnesses; and of those which are perpetrated in his presence, he cannot know either the extent, or malignity. His own sins in the meantime both of heart and of life are, in a sense, always, naked before him; and he can hardly fail to discern, in some good degree, their number, their aggravations, and their guilt.

Hence other Christians will, in a comparative sense, appear to him to be clean, while he will seem unsound and polluted, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. In this situation, the difficulty of esteeming others better than himself vanishes. Impossible as it would be for a proud man to think in this manner, the only difficulty to the humble man is to think in any other.

Such at all times, with the exceptions for which the human character always lays the foundation, will be the emotions naturally imbibed and strongly cherished by Christian humility. But there are certain seasons in which they will be excited in a peculiar degree. Such will be the case in the house of God. Here he is brought immediately into the presence of his Maker; here he appears in the character of a sinner and of a suppliant for mercy; here he draws nigh to his Maker in the solemn ordinances of the Sanctuary; here the character and sufferings of the Redeemer are set before him in the light of heaven; here he witnesses all the wonders of redeeming, forgiving, and sanctifying love. What God is, and what he himself is, what he has done to destroy himself, and what God has done to

save him from destruction, are here presented to his eye, and brought home to his heart, in the most affecting manner. In this solemn place, also, he is in the midst of his fellow Christians, uniting with them in their prayers and praises, and sitting with them at the table of Christ to celebrate His sufferings, and the love wherewith He loved us and gave Himself for us.

In such a situation, how great and good must his Father, Redeemer, and Sanctifier appear! How little, how unworthy, how sinful! How strange must it seem that he, who is unworthy of the least, should thus be put into the possession of the greatest of all mercies! How naturally, how often, and how anxiously will he inquire whether it can be proper for such a being as himself to unite with the followers of the Redeemer in their worship, share in their privileges, and participate in their hopes and joys!

Feelings of the same general nature will also be awakened, and often in an equal degree, when he retires to his closet to pray to his Father who is in secret. Here he withdraws entirely from the world and meets his Maker face to face. The Divine character and his own must be brought before his eyes in the strongest light while he is employed in confessing his sins and supplicating pardon and sanctification; gratefully acknowledging the blessings which he has received and humbly asking for those which he needs. How naturally would he exclaim, Lord, “what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou shouldest visit him?” (Ps. 8:4). Such, if I mistake not, are the views and affections formed by Christian humility.

RemarksFrom these observations, three things are evident.

We see that:1) Evangelical humility is exactly conformed to

the real circumstances and character of men. The views which the humble man entertains of himself and of his condition are exactly suited to both. He is just such a being as he supposes himself to be, and in just such a condition. His origin is as lowly, his situation as dependent and precarious, his mind as ignorant and erring, his character as guilty, and his destination fraught with as much distress and danger, as he himself realizes.

His views therefore, are absolutely true and just. If such views then are honorable to a rational being, if no other thoughts can be honorable to such a being, then the views entertained by humility are honorable to the human character. On the contrary, the views of pride, or as Mr. Hume chooses to style it, “self-valuation,” are absolutely unsuited both to the condition and character of man. They are radically and universally unjust and false, and of course, are only disgraceful and contemptible.

The affections, which have been here considered as involved in humility, are evidently no less just. They spring


irresistibly from the views, and no sober mind can entertain the latter without experiencing the former. These affections are all, plainly, the harmony of the heart with the dictates of the understanding: dictates seen and acknowledged to be just and certain, and, where the heart is governed by candor, irresistible. Whenever the mind sees itself to be thus ignorant, erring, and sinful, and its situation thus dependent, precarious, and distressing, it cannot, without violence done to itself, fail of feeling both the character and condition, and of feeling them deeply; for they are objects of immeasurable importance to its whole well-being.

Equally just are the affections which he exercises towards his Maker and his fellow-Christians. The difference between the character of God and his own character being seen to be such; so entire, so vast, particularly as He is infinitely holy and pure, while himself is altogether polluted with guilt. No emotions can be proper towards this great and glorious Being, which do not involve a strong sense of this amazing moral difference between Him and itself. In such a case, where there is no humility, there can be no reverence towards God; and where there is no reverence, it is impossible that there should be anything acceptable towards Him.

In the same manner, humility enters into every other affection of a sanctified mind towards its Maker. Our views of the mercy of God exercised towards us, and the emotions excited by them, are exactly proportioned to the apprehensions which we form of our own unworthiness. He to whom much is forgiven, our Savior informs us, will love much (cf. Luke 7:47). Pardon, mercy, and grace are terms which mean little, if they have any meaning that is realized, in the eye of him who is not humbled for his sins and who does not feel his own absolute need of pardon. The song of the redeemed is sung only by those who realize the love of Christ because He has washed them from their sins in His own blood. The gratitude therefore exercised to God for His unspeakable mercy in forgiving our sins and redeeming us from under the curse of the Law will in a great measure be created by our humility.

In the same manner does it enhance our complacency in the divine character. Of dependence, it is the essence; of adoration, and indeed of all our worship, it is the substance and the soul.

2) No man can hope for acceptance with God without humility. “God,” says our text, “resisteth the proud, but giveth grace [or favor] to the humble.” The proud and the humble are two great classes including the whole of the human race. Of which class does it seem probable to the eye of sober reason that the infinitely perfect Author of all things will select His own family and the objects of His everlasting love? Those who possess the views and the spirit here described, or those who indulge the “self-valuation” so grateful to Mr. Hume? Those who

boldly come before Him with, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men” (Luke 18:11), or those who “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’” (Luke 18:13)?

How obvious is it to common sense that, if He accept any of our race, they will be such as have just views of their character and condition, of their own absolute unworthiness, of the greatness of His mercy in forgiving their sins and sanctifying their souls, of the transcendent glory of the Redeemer in becoming their propitiation, and of the infinite benignity of the divine Spirit in renewing them in the image and restoring them to the favor of God. Who else can possess the spirit, who else can unite in the employments, who else can harmonize in the praises of the firstborn?

Let me ask, is it possible that a proud man should be a candidate for immortal life; whether proud of his birth, his wealth, his station, his accomplishments, or his moral character? Suppose him to arrive in the regions of life, in what manner would his pride be employed? Which of these subjects would he make the theme of his conversation with the spirits of just men made perfect? How would he blend his pride with their worship; how would he present it before the throne of God?

3) Humility is a disposition eminently lovely. “Learn of me,” says the Savior of mankind to proud and perishing sinners, “for I am meek and lowly of heart” (Matt. 11:29). How astonishing a declaration from the mouth of Him who controlled the elements with a word, at whose command the dead were raised to life, and at whose rebuke demons trembled and fled! Draw nigh, ye miserable worms of the dust, place yourselves by the side of this glorious person, and recite before Him the foundations on which your loftiness rests, your riches, your rank, your talents, and your stations. How will these subjects appear to His eye? How will those appear, who make them the grounds of their “self-valuation”? Meekness and lowliness of heart adorned Him with beauty inexpressible. Can pride be an ornament to you?

Would you be amiable in the sight of God, you must essentially resemble Him who was altogether lovely. Even you yourselves cannot but discern that, had He been proud, it would have tarnished His character and have eclipsed the face of the Sun of Righteousness.

In the mean time, let Christians remember and feel that they themselves will be lovely, exactly in proportion as they approximate to the character of the Redeemer in their humility. “Let this mind,” says St. Paul to the Philippians, “be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of


men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8). From what a height did he descend! How lowly the visible station which, he assumed!

Your humility towards God will make you lovely in His sight; your humility towards your fellow-Christians will make you lovely in theirs. In both cases, it will be a combination of views and affections conformed to truth, exactly suited to your character and circumstances, and equally conformed to the good pleasure of God and to the perfect example of His beloved Son. It will mingle with all your affections, and make them sweet and delightful. It will operate on all your conduct, and make it amiable in the sight of every beholder. From pride and all its wretched consequences it will deliver you. Of the grace of God it will assure you. It will accompany you through life, and lessen

all the troubles, and increase all the comforts of your pilgrimage. It will soften your dying bed, and enhance your hope and your confidence before the last tribunal.

Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) was an early American academic, widely regarded in his day as a cultural, educational, religious, and (at times) political leader. A grandson of Jonathan Edwards, he worked as a minister in Massachusetts and also served two terms in the state legislature there before moving to Fairfield, Connecticut, to pastor a church in 1783. In 1795, he was appointed president of Yale College (now Yale University) in New Haven, a position in which he served until his death. He is remembered as a stalwart defender of the faith who left a lasting impact on his students and the spiritual life of the United States.

_____________________________________________________________________________Marks of the Master—by The Old Scot

The Really Different Tree

What is it that can be made into “millionaire’s salad” at one end and into toothbrushes at the other? While you are pondering that question, let us add that almost everything between those ends is also useful for man.

What is it? It is the palm tree—or rather, the family of palm trees, for there are hundreds of varieties.

One of the good things to eat which some palms furnish is the growing green bud at the top of the tree. It is sometimes called “millionaire’s salad,” because removing this bud signals the tree’s death. Presumably only millionaires can afford such waste just for the sake of a delicacy.

Various palm trees also furnish dates, coconuts, sago, oil, and the betel nuts that are chewed by millions as a stimulant. The leaves of palm trees are widely used in the tropics for thatching roofs, as well as being woven into panels for walls and sunshades. Furniture used by millions worldwide is made from another palm, the rattan palm. And the husks of some palm seeds are hard enough to use as gravel for roads—or, in the case of the ivory palm—to make into beautiful buttons. What about the toothbrush? For uncounted centuries some peoples have used pieces of palm tree root to clean their teeth. Altogether, the palm is so useful that it has been dubbed “the prince of the plant kingdom.”

Now, what makes palm trees so different from other trees? Chiefly, it’s the palm’s manner of growth. In fact, it grows a lot more like a stalk of corn than like usual trees. A corn stalk has a pithy center. So do palms, notably including the sago palm, which stores edible starch in its

pithy center. A corn stalk does most of its growing in a thick outer layer, and so does the palm.

“Normal” trees grow outward throughout their life, thanks to a living sheath of cells, called the cambium layer, which continually adds woody tissue on the inside and bark on the outside. But palm trees have no cambium layer, and for this reason generally cannot grow bigger around. The few varieties that do swell outward above ground do so from pressure generated by cell growth in the interior of the trunk.

One striking result of this growth habit is the palm tree’s ability to survive fires that decimate trees all around them. Since the palm’s life is centered inwardly rather than outwardly, it can often survive, even with a badly burned exterior.

Palms also have tremendous resiliency, thanks to the tough fibers that are packed densely in the outer layers of their stems. This enables them to bend and rebound in high winds that can shatter other trees.

We should ask how such a different kind of tree happens to exist. Evolution does not provide a very good answer. The theory of evolution is success-oriented. Winners become ever more successful, and crowd out the losers. In theory, there shouldn’t be much place for great variety in a world formed by evolution. And that should be particularly true in the tropics, where the competition for growing space is fierce. Yet it is chiefly in the tropics that this very different family of trees thrives.

There is a more reasonable answer to the question of how all things came to be, and that is the Bible answer. The Bible says: “God said, Let the earth bring forth grass,


the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth, and it was so…and God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:11-12).

Palm trees are good. They are a blessing gift to mankind from a great and good Father-God—a God who created the Earth as a glorious garden and placed man in it as the pinnacle of His creation. This, the Bible tells us, is how it all began.

But the Bible also tells of man’s great fall, and how in falling he spoiled the garden. Death and destruction thus entered into the very warp and woof of Nature. The Bible also tells us that Nature will not always remain ruined. A day is coming when this will be reversed, and all things shall be again as they were in the beginning.

No man knows when that great restoration will take place. But we do not have to wait for that in order to find perfect peace with God in our hearts. There is a way now to

be reconciled to our God and our Maker. That way is through God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ (whose entry into Jerusalem in the last week of His life, incidentally, was heralded by crowds waving palm leaves, cf. John 12:12), who declared: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and no man cometh to the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

He said it, He means it, and it is God’s absolute truth.

The Old Scot (Ted Kyle) lives in Newberg, Oregon, with his wife, Marga.

Sources:Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees, Herbert Edlin and Maurice Nimmo, Harmony Books, NY, 1978.Cowles Encyclopedia of Animals and Plants, Cowles Education Corp., 1968, pp. 112-114.

_____________________________________________________________________________Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel

Many Come to Christ in ThailandBy AMG International Staff

This column highlights the ministries of Disciple’s parent organization, Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel (AMG) International, a non-denominational missions agency.

Many refugees from Myanmar (Burma) live in the neighboring country of Thailand. AMG’s own National Director in Thailand is from Burma. He and many others have left their homeland which has, since 1962, been under the closely controlled rule of a military junta that has practiced gross mismanagement, repression, persecution, racial discrimination, superstitious beliefs and turned a country that under British Colonial rule (1824–1948) was the second wealthiest country in Southeast Asia into one of the world’s most impoverished countries.

The Burmese refugees in Thailand love to meet together with their countrymen. They miss their homeland and “their own kind.” But many are missing something else, although they don’t know what it is. It is Jesus, and Dr. “Chowkee” U Zaw Min, AMG’s National Director, is happy to share the Good News with his countrymen, who, like the Thai people, are primarily Buddhists.

Chowkee organized the 16th annual Indoor Myanmar Evangelistic Crusade on December4–6, 2010, at the Alexander Hotel in Bangkok, which was attended by 211 non-Christians.

Following praise and worship, Chowkee spoke from Genesis 1 with an explanation of God’s creation.

Chowkee’s father, Dr. Ronnie Tin Maung Tun, continued by explaining how God created the human race, and how mankind is created in the image of God. Other Burmese pastors followed, adding to the story of God’s provision for us. At the end, 139 people responded to the Gospel. After an explanation of water baptism, 123 people followed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior by taking baptism in the hotel swimming pool.

All those who were baptized received a complete Bible (Old and New Testaments). An easy to understand version of the Bible was given to all the other attendees. We praise the Lord for these new believers. Please pray for their spiritual growth as well as for the ongoing outreach taking place in both Thailand and Myanmar.

Originally published in the April 2011 edition of AMG International’s News from the Field.

Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel (AMG) International is a non-denominational, international

missions agency based in Chattanooga, Tenn. AMG’s distinctive has always been its reliance on national workers

to carry the Gospel in their own cultures. Today, they operate ministries in over 40 countries around the world

through partnership with national believers.

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Book Reviews—4/11/2011

Editor’s Note: As we sometimes do, in this issue, due to a recent influx of books (but in the absence of time and energy to read them all in depth) we are offering brief overviews of five noteworthy recent releases in lieu of our usual full reviews.

Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia, Mark A. Noll and Carolyn Nystrom, 2011, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill., ISBN 9780830838349, 300 pages, $25.00, hardcover.

Much has been made about how the balance of Christianity in the world has tilted away from the West and toward Africa and Asia. Noll & Nystrom put faces on this seismic shift, profiling 17 influential Christian leaders from around the world and the impacts their ministries had on opening the doors wide to the Gospel in their respective countries. An encouraging and challenging reminder that God is the God of all nations and desires people from each and every one.

Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires and Emotions for Faith, Clifford Williams, 2011, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill., ISBN 9780830838998, 188 pages, $22.00, softcover.

Williams engages the traditional model of apologetics as a rational appeal for a rational faith and proposes that it is incomplete without an appeal to the emotions (i.e., the ways in which God alone satisfies our needs). While recognizing that the emotions often lead us astray, he defends them as part of God’s creation that is designed to lead us to Him. He shows that an emotional engagement with truth is as important to long-term belief and obedience as rational agreement, and argues for a reasonable incorporation of both rational and emotional apologetics in witnessing the Gospel to the world.

Pillars of Grace: A Long Line of Godly Men (Vol. 2, A.D. 100-1564), Steven J. Lawson, 2011, Reformation Trust, Lake Mary, Fla., ISBN 9781567692112, 541 pages, $28.00, hardcover.

Baptist pastor Steven Lawson returns with the second set of masterful mini-biographies of the “giants of the faith” who have been used of God to shepherd His Gospel from Christ to the present day. The first volume, Foundations of Grace, focused primarily on biblical characters, and this second installment moves from the early Church fathers (Ignatius, Tertullian, Athanasius, etc.) to the guardians of truth in the medieval Church (Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, John Wycliffe, etc.) to the Reformers (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, etc.). Lawson traces the key points of evangelical theology (cross-based exclusivism, biblical literalism, evangelism, etc.) through the ages to show that our faith is as traditional as it is alive.

Ten Myths about Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition, Kenneth J. Stewart, 2011, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill., ISBN 978083083898, 301 pages, $24.00, softcover.

With Calvinism and Reformed Theology on the rise again in American Christianity, many of the age old confusions about that theological tradition are resurfacing as well. Stewart sets out to disabuse both Calvinists and non-Calvinists of several ideas that have no basis in fact or history and to encourage believers of all stripes to deal in truth instead of stereotypes.

The Whole Bible Story: Everything That Happens in the Bible in Plain English, William H. Marty, 2011, Bethany House, Bloomington, Minn., ISBN 9780764208294, 256 pages, $14.99, softcover.

Marty, a professor of Bible at Moody Bible Institute, distills the narrative of Scripture (both the Old and New Testaments) into a story format. This is not a unique approach, as many others have attempted to organize the Bible’s storyline in this way before, but Marty does a good job in keeping the flow grounded in the text and brings out exegetical insights along the way. Perhaps a helpful introduction or companion to reading the narrative passages in God’s Word.

_____________________________________________________________________________News Update—4/11/2011

Minority of Evangelical Leaders Say Bible Requires Tithing

Most evangelical pastors don’t think tithing is required by the Bible, CNN reports, but still believe it’s a good idea.

An informal survey, conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) among its 100-member


board of directors, found that 42 percent of evangelical leaders believe the Bible requires tithing, while 58 percent do not.

“Since there is such a strong evangelical tradition of tithing, I was a little surprised that a majority of our evangelical leaders say the tithe system of the Old Testament does not carry over to the New Testament or to us,” NAE President Leith Anderson said in a statement.

Religion Today Summaries

Court Rules to Protect N.C. Professor’s Right to Religious Speech

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that University of North Carolina–Wilmington professor Mike Adams’ was denied a promotion based on his religious and political commentary.

The Christian Post reports that Adams’ conversion to Christianity and subsequent writings could not be considered part of his professional duties as a criminology professor, but are in fact protected by the First Amendment. University officials may be held liable for damages if the case continues.

The appeals court said in its opinion, “No individual loses his ability to speak as a private citizen by virtue of public employment.”


Exit Visa: Iraqi Christians Look for Safe HavenMany Iraqi Christians have tried to flee their home

country only to be refused refuge in many European countries, including the Netherlands and Great Britain.

Christianity Today reports that no one is quite sure how many Iraqi Christians have left the country, as refugees are not counted by religious affiliation, but the United Nations estimated 1.4 million people have left Iraq. About half of those are believed to be Christian.

“We needed to keep the problem on the political agenda and make sure that the European institutions continue to protect the rights and the security as much as possible of these minorities,” said Grégor Puppinck, director of the European Center for Law and Justice, the European arm of the American Center for Law and Justice.


Persecution: Chinese Expand Their Tactics, Report Says

Baptist Press reports that the Chinese government intensified its pressure against Christians in 2010 for a “fifth straight year of escalating persecution,” according to ChinaAid Association.

The Christian human rights organization says that beatings, torture, arrests, harassment and church demolitions are among the 90 recorded cases of persecution, a nearly 17 percent increase over 2009, according to a report released on March 31. The cases “are just the tip of the iceberg,” according to a ChinaAid news release.

“The Chinese government’s stranglehold on information and the authoritarian regime’s other security measures make getting a true picture of the extent of persecution impossible,” even though the report includes incidents from all over China.


Supreme Court to Weigh Churches’ Employment Rights

Religion News Service reports that the Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether a teacher who was fired from a religious school is subject to a “ministerial exception” that can bar suits against religious organizations. The case involves an employment dispute between a Michigan school and a teacher who is defended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Lawyers for the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Mich., argue that courts have long recognized the First Amendment doctrine that often prevents employees who perform religious functions from suing religious organizations. They asked the court to determine whether it extends to teachers at a religious school who teach a secular curriculum but also teach religion classes and lead students in prayer.


Japan Relief Effort Still Faces Major ObstaclesProgress continues in developing partnerships and

training church members for disaster response in Japan, but major obstacles stand in the way of the disaster relief effort, the executive director of Baptist Global Response said March 28.

Jeff Palmer, who leads the international relief and development organization, told Baptist Press, “We face... significant challenges in the area of basic logistics: purchasing fuel, acquiring relief supplies in bulk quantities, and things like that.”

Apart from logistical problems, the team also faces challenges of gaining access to the disaster zone, Melancon said. Government permits to access the area via main roads are hard to come by, and navigating back roads is complicated by fuel shortages.


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Sermon Helps—From SermonHall.com

Sermon OutlinesTapestry of AtonementFoundational Inquiry: The sins of man must be atoned for. God’s nature demands that every wrong be dealt with! The atonement of sinful man by a merciful God is woven throughout Scripture like a scarlet thread in a brilliant tapestry. What is our condition that it decrees such atonement?I. We Are Dead in Our Trespasses and Sins (Eph. 2:1)II. We Are by Nature and Practice the Children of Wrath (Eph. 2:3)

A. Immorality of the flesh.B. Immorality of the mind.

III. We Are Without Hope and Without God in the World (Eph. 2:12)IV. We Are Strangers and Foreigners to the Household of God (Eph. 2:19) Application: You can see man’s plight. What if God had said, “No! I will not send my Son as a propitiation for their sins”? Or what if the Father said, “Go!” but the Son said, “No! I won’t go!”? We would be still dead in our trespasses and sins, still separated from the love of God, still outside the household of God. But praise be to God we “are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.”

Up From the Grave He Arose“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).Intro.: The whole system of Christianity rests upon this fact (cf. 1 Cor. 15:14, 17, etc.). What does the resurrection mean to us?I. As It Relates to Christ

A. It reminds us of Christ’s absolute humanity (cf. John 1:14; Heb. 4:14-15). B. It reminds us of Christ’s absolute divinity (cf. Rom. 1:4). C. It reminds us of Christ’s absolute sovereignty (cf. Rom. 14:9).

II. As It Relates to UsA. It reminds us of the absolute certainty of our justification (cf. Rom. 4:25). B. It reminds us of the absolute certainty of our regeneration (cf. 1 Pet. 1:3-5). C. It reminds us of the absolute certainty of our resurrection (cf. Rom. 6:5, 8; 8:11).

Conclusion: So, the blood-stained but golden thread of resurrection winds its way through our blessings, from regeneration onwards to our life everlasting.

These two sermons from J. A. Gillmartin.

IllustrationsThe Lowest Friendship

In Eastern lands the story is told of the great Shah Abbas, who delighted in mingling in disguise with the common folk of his realm. Once, dressed in wretched rags, he descended to the lowest level of the palace, where one of his humblest servants sat tending the furnace. Each enjoyed the other’s company, and by and by the furnace tender shared his lunch of black bread and water with his companion.

This led to many another visit, and a deepening friendship, though the servant had no idea of his new friend’s identity. At last, the shah revealed his identity, and waited, ready to grant whatever petition the servant might make. But the other sat silent, gazing on him with love and wonder. “Haven’t you understood?” asked the shah. “I can make you rich and noble. I can give you a city. I can appoint you as a great ruler. Have you nothing to ask?”

“Yes, my lord, I understood,” the furnace tender replied. “But what is this you have done, to leave your glorious surroundings, to sit with me in this dark place, to partake of my coarse fare, and to care whether my heart is glad or sorry? Even you can give nothing more precious. On others you may bestow rich presents, but to me you have given yourself; it only remains to ask that you never withdraw this gift of your friendship”

Anonymous

The Light of the WorldChrist has illuminated the world, not by what He

did, but by what He was; His life is the Light of Men. We speak of a man’s life-work; the work of Jesus was His life itself…. It is good to be told that the pure in heart shall see God, but the vision of heaven in a pure man’s face outweighs it all.

They tell us that the Easter morning has revealed His glory; rather would I say that His glory has revealed the Easter morning. It is not resurrection that has made Christ; it is Christ that has made resurrection. To those who have seen His beauty, even Olivet can add no certainty; the light of immortality is as bright on His Cross as on His Crown. “I am the resurrection” are His own words about Himself—not “I teach,” not “I cause,” not “I predict,” but “I am.”

George Matheson

Bulletin InsertsOn Easter


Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there.

Clarence W. Hall The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world. Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice. But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline, and make the sacrifice.

Henry Knox Sherrill

Could life so end, half told; its school so fail? Soul, soul, there is a sequel to thy tale!

Robert Mowry Bell

Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.

Charles M. Crowe

We live and die; Christ died and lived!

John R.W. Stott

Once more to new creation awake, and death gainsay, for death is swallowed up of life, and Christ is risen today!

George Newell Lovejoy

There is not room for Death, nor atom that his might could render void: Thou—Thou art being and breath, and what Thou art may never be destroyed.

Emily Bronte

And He departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here.

Augustine of Hippo

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.

Martin Luther These nine via www.quotegarden.com.

_____________________________________________________________________________Puzzles and ‘Toons

Church ’Toons by Joe McKeever

Answers to last issue’s puzzles:


Father Abraham and Hidden WisdomBy Mark Oshman

Originally published in Pulpit Helps, July1993Hidden Wisdom on next page

discipleship, understanding, obedience, pulpit helps - july ... · web viewhe bears a cross, not...

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